What is the Nature of Modern-Day Slavery in Americas Fields?
Antonio Martinez was lured into slavery by the promise of work in America. He and 18 others were hauled in a van from the Arizona-Mexico border to Florida at $700 a piece, to be worked off in a form of contemporary slavery called debt bondage. After arriving in the Immokalee region, they picked tomatoes at a rate of $24 for every 1,000 pounds harvested while under the watch of an armed crew boss. They were informed that escape attempts would be answered by either beatings or a bullet. Smuggling, food and shelter costs were docked from workers’ checks, with interest so high these workers-turned-slaves weren’t able to pay it off and became bonded laborers to the crew boss. Martinez became one of the estimated 50,000 men, women, and children the CIA says are brought to U.S. shores every year and forced into slavery under the threat of violence.
